CA 208: Market Segmentation and Target Marketing

             For our most recent class discussion, we tackled a chapter on market segmentation and target marketing. Assigned presenters reintroduced to us the market segmentation process. It is how marketers make use of behavioral characteristics to bracket prospective customers together into market segments – they distinguish the groups of prospective buyers and then cluster them according to shared characteristics in categories:

• behavioristic - consumer's purchase decisions
• geographic - location, which city, form of housing, rural or urban
• demographic - age, gender, income, educational background, employment status
• psychographic - personality, values, lifestyle, activities, interests, opinions

             When the market segmentation process is finalized, the company can progress to the target marketing process. In this process, there will be an assessment of each segment – they decide on which consumers should the advertising be targeted at (the segment that will yield the greatest profit will be the primary target market while the segment that will yield the second greatest profit can be the secondary target market). It is a very constructive lesson – since no product caters to a whole population, go for the segment that will give the best results for the company.

                                                                                       

ARE YOU READY TO PUT YOUR LEARNINGS

ON MARKET SEGMENTATION AND TARGET MARKETING

TO A TEST? 

             Let’s do it! Think of a particular clothing brand that you are very familiar with. Have you decided on the clothing brand? If so, think about their clothes and the kinds of people that wear those clothes. Now, bring out your pen and paper then list down the groups of people that buy these clothes – write down every relevant detail of their shared characteristics: the gender, age bracket, economic status, location, nature of employment, educational background, social life, and behavior. Make sure you don’t miss anything! Next is to try analyzing these segments and find out which segment will generate the most amount of profit – take into consideration the number of people in each group, the frequency of their shopping, and the amount of money they are willing to spend. With you being done with that, you are now able to identify the probable primary and secondary target market of that particular brand! You could make great use of this lesson. You’ll never know! You could be a future owner of an international chain of clothing retailers!

By: Shella Avena